The Social Construction of Multiple Personality Disorder

Abstract

In the first part of this paper, the senior author (SJL) provides a first-person account of his observations as a supervising psychologist at a state mental hospital that specialized in the treatment of multiple personality disorder (MPD). These observations encompass a fertile and influential period in the history of the evolving conceptualization and treatment of serious dissociative disorders. In the second part of the paper, Judith Pintar and the senior author maintain that MPD can be understood in terms of the way narratives of multiplicity are embedded in social interactions and emerge within the discourse of a psychotherapeutic relationship. The paper retains the conversational tone adopted in presenting an earlier version of the manuscript as a spoken commentary on Sherrill Mulhern’s talk on the topic of sociocultural factors in the treatment of multiple pesonality disorders.